Building a better Kópavogur

Can I vote?

If one of the following applies to you, you can vote in the coming municipal elections on the 26th of May 2018:

Nordic nationals 18 and older have the right to vote after three consecutive years of legal residence. For the elections on May 26th, this means that you must have been a resident since before May 26th, 2015.

All other foreign nationals 18 and older have the right to vote after five consecutive years of legal residence. For the elections of May 26th, this means that you must have been a resident since before May 26th 2013.

Why should you vote?

Maybe you are asking yourself, why bother voting? What does it really matter to me? Well, it matters a lot. In a small society like Iceland, every single vote counts, so much more than in other countries. Moreover, municipal elections are about what really matters to most of us. Your vote will have an impact on deciding who will be running the city and making the decisions that will affect the lives of all of us. Local elections are directly connected to the schools our children go to, housing for us and our families, public transport, social welfare and so on. These are the things we cast our vote for on May 26th!

Your vote will have an impact on deciding who will be running the city and making the decisions that will affect the lives of all of us.

Your vote will have an impact on deciding who will be running the city and making the decisions that will affect the lives of all of us. Local elections are directly connected to the schools our children go to, housing for us and our families, public transport, social welfare and so on. These are the things we cast our vote for on May 26th!

Why should you vote for Samfylkingin?

Samfylkingin is what most of us know as Social Democrats. Immigrant issues are really what the core of Social Democracy is all about: equal opportunities for each and every one in our society. At Samfylkingin, we believe in social fairness: providing quality education not just for the rich, making sure housing is affordable for all, improving public transport, ensuring there is the same pay for the same job regardless of gender and nationality, and most importantly, building Kópavogur together. This is your home, too!

At Samfylkingin we embrace diversity, we believe that diversity make us stronger and better. But we also believe in what unites us, we care for our families and social justice. We will make sure all voices are heard in building a fair society through intercultural dialogue and understanding. Below you will find some of our main objectives.

Affordable housing for all

We want to guarantee diversity on the housing market in Kópavogur.

Over the last 4 years, not a single building plot was allotted to housing cooperatives, student housing, or housing cooperatives for the elderly. There is a real want for affordable housing in Kópavogur. Young people should not have to move to different municipalities to find a roof over their heads.

Kópavogur should also ensure that students, tenants, people in need of social support and the elderly have access to a diverse housing market.

Our steps towards a better housing market:

Making sure the allotment of building plots is distributed in a way that encourages the construction of housing units of various sizes and providing a sufficient number of apartments in Kópavogur.

Providing young people with access to smaller and more affordable housing (for rent or for sale).

Control over the rental of flats to tourists, for example through Airbnb.

Construction of student flats in the Kársnes district, in cooperation with student housing cooperatives.

Education

We need to bridge the gap between maternity leave and kindergarten, so that children from the age of 12 months can get care in kindergartens. In our opinion, it is necessary to create special kindergarten units for the youngest children (from 12 months old).

During the next four years, we want to:

Bridge the gap - ensure children from 12 months old have access to kindergarten.

Shorten the work week of teachers and pre-school workers and improve their working conditions.

Take care of the renovation and repair of preschool and school buildings.

Improve teachers' working conditions and increase the availability of specialist help (for example psychologists and speech therapists) in education.

Extend daycare and the operation of school dayrooms over the summertime, and improve their facilities and services.

Matters of foreign residents

Residents of other origins enrich our society and should feel welcome in Kópavogur.Foreigners are now around 10% of the town's population and it is important for the town´s council to take it into account in its policy and work for society. Children speaking other mother tongues than Icelandic should be assured equal opportunities to learning, to participate in sports and recreational activities.

The most important thing is to provide them with the best conditions for learning Icelandic. Samfylking wants to provide children of foreign origin a higher number of classes in schools to support Icelandic as a second language and support their cultural competence.

We want to support residents of foreign origin and work towards strong multicultural society through:

The establishment of the Town´s Multicultural Council.

Support of teaching Icelandic in kindergartens and schools.

Employment of so-called traveling teachers, who use pupils' native languages o help them learn other subjects such as mathematics, natural sciences or history.

Improving access to information and training for parents of foreign origin.

Town´s website nd Íbúagátt in several languages.

Establishment of an Information Center for foreigners in cooperation with other municipalities.

Icelandic language courses for city employees of foreign origin.

Sports, activities, and the matters of children and young people

During the next four years, we want to:

Increase the amount of subsidies for sports and recreational activities for children and youth up to 80.000 kr.

Provide free entry to our town’s swimming pools for children and young people under 18 years of age.

Provide one bus for all city districts that would bring children and teenagers to sports and recreation activities.

Improve the housing conditions of these sports and recreation clubs, which lack proper facilities, e.g. due to high interest.

Provide additional extracurricular and recreational activities in schools for children and young people (for example music, theater and art activities).

A few other points of our program:

Programming lessons in primary schools.

Urban line (Borgarlína) - modern transportation services like in other European capitals.

Free public transport for high school students.

Better cleared snow paths and bicycle paths.

Increasing the number of walking and cycling paths.

Strengthening town democracy - 2% of residents with electoral rights may request a meeting of the Town´s Council in relation to a specific issue.